Afternoon Tea

Last Saturday I hosted an afternoon tea for a friend at church who is moving away. It was such fun to pull out all the linens, china and some random accents that I had packed away in boxes in the basement that I have no room for in my kitchen. The girls came over around 2:00 p.m. and we feasted on cucumber sandwiches, cheddar and chutney sandwiches, raisin scones (these are really amazing), lemon curd (thanks, Whole Foods!), Devonshire cream (a big thanks to Whole Foods who gave this to me for FREE!), strawberry jam, fruit salad and the piece de resistance, a chocolate raspberry tart. We washed it all down with a choice of black Assam tea and/or Indian chai.

A special thanks to Erin for the great pictures and believe me, you will want to try the chocolate raspberry tart. It wows and dazzles and best of all, it’s ridiculously easy to make.

Chocolate-Raspberry Tart

Recipe Adapted From: Everyday Food Magazine

32 chocolate wafer cookies (about 8 ounces)

2 tablespoons sugar

Coarse salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (6 ounces)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, combine cookies, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Process until very fine crumbs form. Add butter and pulse until mixture just comes together. Press crumbs firmly into a 9-inch fluted tart panwith a removable bottom. Place on a baking sheet and bake until crust is dry and set, 20 minutes. Let cool.

In a large bowl, combine chocolate and pinch of salt. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a bare simmer over medium-high. Immediately pour cream over chocolate and let stand 1 minute. Stir gently until chocolate melts and mixture is completely smooth. Pour chocolate into cooled tart shell and refrigerate until set, 30 minutes. To serve, remove tart from pan and scatter raspberries on top.

NOTES: 1. I think the chocolate wafers are over-priced so I substituted 25 Oreo cookies instead. 2. I used a flat-bottomed 1-cup measure to press the cookies firmly into the tart pan. 3. If for any reason, your chocolate does not melt (i.e. you didn’t follow explicit instructions to *immediately* pour the hot cream to the chocolate because your toddler was asking his one hundredth question for the morning), place the chocolate/cream mixture in a glass bowl over simmering water on the stove and stir until melted. 4. Only add the raspberries once you are ready to serve.

Oh, I so wish I could! I found a tea shop here (the girl who left told me about it) that is really fun to visit (when you come, we’ll go!). I told my friend that if it was another season of my life, I could totally do a teashop!